On August 22 the glare of the national media was fixed on Liverpool for the worst reasons imaginable.
The murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was the sickening nadir of six days of gun violence in the city which had already claimed the lives of 22-year-old mechanic Sam Rimmer and 28-year-old civil servant Ashley Dale.
Mr Rimmer was shot dead in Lavrock Bank, Dingle, on Tuesday, August 16, after he and his associates had chased away two men on an electric bike. The riders had regrouped with another two men on a second bike, returned to the scene and unleased a volley of shots.
